PS Vita usable as PlayStation 3 controller or Wii U-style display

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Sony has revealed at the Develop Conference that its upcoming PSP successor, the PlayStation Vita, could be used as a PlayStation 3 controller and that it will be up to developers to determine how the two systems interact.

Sony Europe R&D manager Phil Rogers listed a number of possibilities, which he called “a few boring technical ideas.” The first was a Wii U-esque use of the Vita’s screen to display a PS3 game. He mentioned that the PS3 could be doing graphics processing and sending the “fancy graphics” over to the Vita. A “rich experience on Vita” comes without sacrificing the PS3’s CPU, he said.

Another possibility was using the Vita as a controller for the PS3. This would enable the bigger console to take advantage of the Vita’s unique features, including the touch surfaces on front and back as well as the portable’s gyroscopes.

These possibilities, which will be made available as options to developers working on Sony platforms, tie in to a bigger Sony effort to promote same-title, cross-platform gaming on the PS3 and Vita. At the conference, Rogers demonstrated Wipeout 2048 communicating with the PlayStation 3 racer Wipeout HD. Eurogamer, which attended the conference, noted that performance was better on the PS3 but that the Vita version wasn’t bad at all.

The PlayStation Network has been presented in this context as a cloud service to link gameplay experiences across platforms. Players will be able to access data such as save games and scoreboards from either platform. Sony has taken care to ensure that “it doesn’t break the PS3 experience,” citing the large number of PS3 owners.

In an interesting twist, Rogers detailed a PS Vita feature called Continuation Play. Not unlike the “Transfaring” feature in upcoming Konami games, Continuation Play allows users to start playing a PS3 game and then pick it up while on the move on Vita. The system will be supported by Title User Storage, which puts 1MB on Sony servers for save games visible from both the PS3 and Vita. As Rogers put it, players can play a game at home, “take it on the train and continue.” The feature has already been announced for Ruin, a Diablo-esque RPG, and Rogers teased that more games using the feature “probably” exist. Sony will also make it possible for PS3 developers to patch in these features to existing PS3 games.

Data will be transferred through the PlayStation Network, or Wi-Fi when both systems are on the same access point. “You don’t need fancy cables,” Rogers claimed. “It just works,” he added.

Remote Play, a feature for streaming gameplay from the home console seen on the PSP, will also be present in Vita. Rogers claims to have seen an early version running and said it “look[s] good.” The feature will be available at launch.

The Nintendo 3DS was recently mooted to support greater interaction with the Wii U, such as being used as an additional controller for the console, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata downplayed the potential for fear of turning customers away.